Russell Investments has selected Ankura Capital, the Australian equities specialist for BNY Mellon Asset Management, to manage an Australian equity mandate.
Ankura’s mandate forms part of Russell Investments’ newly launched Australian Shares Enhanced Income Fund.
This is the second mandate Ankura has been awarded as part of its Australian Equity High Yield strategy. In May, IPAC awarded Ankura a high yield mandate within their new diversified High Yield fund, AXA Generator.
Ankura Capital CIO and managing director Greg Vaughan said that this strategy has been developed to recognize both the increase in demand for income focused strategies, and as a response to the lower growth investment environment that is likely to prevail for some time.
"The essence of this strategy is to focus on sustainable yield, including franking credits. The preference for yield generally excludes resource stocks. It boils down to filtering the market on quality of yield, excluding those with deficient free cash flow or high leverage," Vaughan said.
Ankura, based in Sydney, specializes in Australian and Japanese equities and has a long-term track record managing institutional funds since 1995. Ankura manages approximately A$1bn in Australian and Japanese equities and has a primarily Australian client base.